Dolphins are by far the most intelligent animals other than man, and their brain power in some respects may even be superior to man’s. The dolphin brain is 40 per cent larger than the human, although smaller in proportion to body weight, and the cerebral cortex--the layer of gray matter that originates rational thought--is just as complicated. Dr. John C. Lilly, a neurophysiologist and a noted authority on the mammal, is in charge of the project. The research is principally being conducted at the Communications Research Institute of Charlotte Amalie, located at the U.S. Navy base on St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. Dr. Lilly is working under a contract awarded in 1962 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The contract is for basic scientific research “on the feasibility and methodology for establishing communications between man and other species.” Dolphins have a complex vocal language. They talk to each other with sharp, high-pitched whistles and they talk almost continuously. Dr. Lilly has determined that the dolphin distress call is “an undulating sound,” with a rasping noise made periodically for range-finding. Interpreting the dolphin vocabulary will not be easy since the creature emits heavy breathing sounds and there are other masking noises. In experiments with ESB (electric stimulation of the brain), Dr. Lilly located the portion of the dolphin brain that created a feeling of pleasure. The dolphin almost immediately learned how to turn on a switch producing the current. For comparison, in similar tests it was found that monkeys required 300 or more tries before they attained their ability. One day the electrical device broke down. The dolphin, annoyed at losing his pleasurable sensation, began making a series of sounds in imitation of the laboratory equipment. Dr. Lilly made a tape recording of these sounds. Later the doctor played back the recording and in order to more distinctly hear the sounds he decided to run the tape at one quarter its normal speed. It was then that Dr. Lilly made an astonishing discovery. With exaggerated slowness, he listened to his own voice on the tape announcing the footage--“three, two, three”--and the dolphin immediately and clearly repeated the words in high-pitched whistles. Other tape recordings of what had seemed to be an unintelligible series of squawks and quacks, when played at half or quarter speed with the sound volume lowered, confirmed the discovery. The dolphins were not only distinctly imitating the human words they heard, but were compressing their mimicry as to time. They were talking at a rate eight times faster than humans. One dolphin, Dr. Lilly recalls, “mimicked my speaking voice so well that my wife laughed out loud, and he copied her laughter.” When one of the doctor’s assistants who had a southern drawl talked to one dolphin, the animal’s voice came back in clear imitation ... complete with the southern accent.